Inspections reveal students’ opinion of schools
(CNS): As inspectors begin scrutinising private schools as well as those run by government, the first review of an independent school revealed that students are not as impressed with their school as those attending government’s three high schools. The latest reports to be published include Layman E. Scott Sr High School on Cayman Brac and Grace Christian Academy in West Bay. Both schools were rated ‘satisfactory’ overall and assessed as ‘good’ in some areas, but in the student survey almost half rated Grace Academy poorly, compared to three-quarters of students who gave their government schools a thumbs up.
The team inspecting Grace Academy gave the school a mixed review. It ranged from ‘weak’ for the early years centre and parts of the middle school to ‘good’ for the elementary school and parts of the high school.
Overall, it received a satisfactory grade and inspectors have made a number of recommendations to improve teaching and the curriculum in early years classes and to develop the school’s information and communication technology curriculum. Inspectors also said the board needed to hold school leaders to account for its future direction.
The school was said to have “no significant weaknesses” but the pre-school needed improvement, both in teaching and the curriculum. “Across all quality indicators, most judgements were at least satisfactory,” the inspectors found.
But the children who took part in the student survey, which forms part of the inspection, were much harder on the quality of their school, especially when compared to the survey results from the government schools.
Students were asked more than two dozen questions about their school in all of the inspections, but in response to the final question asking them to agree or disagree with the statement “Overall, I am satisfied with the quality of education provided at this school”, only 54% of students at Grace Academy agreed.
Meanwhile, at Layman Scott, which was also rated satisfactory overall, 83% of students said they were satisfied with the school’s quality of education. At John Gray High School, which was also rated satisfactory overall but with a number of weak areas, more than 76% of students there said they were satisfied with the school, and at Clifton Hunter, which was rated weak by the inspectors, 72% of students still gave the school a thumbs up.
Layman Scott has just 142 students and inspectors said students’ behaviour and attendance was good and the school had a number of strengths. But the inspectors recommended that the school monitor teachers’ use of assessment information to plan learning that meets the needs of the most able students and those with special educational needs, which make up around 20% of the student body.
A key issue raised by the inspectors was the aging school site and the team recommended the school “work urgently with the Department of Education Services to access resources that will adequately secure the site during the school day in order to keep students safe at all times.”
Category: Education, Local News
Mostly uneducated negative comments. Kudos to the education standards unit. The unit has improved leaps and bounds since it was moved from the education Ministry to under the Portfolio of the Civil Service. Thank you Ju Ju for agreeing to this.
Private schools will always produce better results than the public schools, for the simple reason that the private schools get to choose their students and the pubic schools cannot.
Maybe that should chnage
Positive or Negative, who cares. Its whether you can say on your death bed you did not scam a whole generation of society. Pleasant dreams.
Nothing new here. While government charges toward the port completion, the uneducated masses who will have to pay for it in the futre are totally clueless.
To the gov of the day, education is the only way for our people to compete and succeed in the global environment.
Spend more money educating the children, inspire them to greatness. Surely one day they will make better decisions than the successive failures of the crab in the bucket administrations that start a project only to have it cancelled by another.
No government or religion will benefit from an educated population.
There is the root of the problem.
Did people not read the 10:32am comment and vote blindly? Those people who voted in favor of that opinion are grossly mistaken. An educated population is a strength of a society.
Obviously. I think perhaps you didn’t understand 10:32’s comment.
It should, but that goes for the more social developed countries in Europe.
Here we deal with an american system of companies and churches manipulating the people.
We won’t hold it against you.
You didn’t understand the poster’s (@10:32)point.
Question: Did anyone ask the high school students if they want
or need library services in the High Schools,
or if this would possibly help improve literacy and studies?
All they need is the bible.
???? Good one.
Don’t know who any y of you are ( save the daily commentator) with your negative commentary but I would urge you to just stop and give thanks for the country that you presently live in even with all the faults in education, government and its processes and yes waste it is still a far better place to live than where those of you who are immigrant posters come from, and indeed for those of you who are Caymanians abroad and perhaps here at home.
The struggles to a lot of you are passé as you are not in the system, therefore cannot know the challenges teachers and students face on a day to day basis. I salute all teachers, students and yes those education officials who work damn hard every day to make things better and I strongly decry all of you who so unabashedly dare to criticize without being there. May our children progress and prosper and may the day come that we are able to say we have come a long way from the days of negativity of our Educational system in these beloved Islands.
OK, nice speech, your boss would be proud. You win the internet. You will be promoted. Clap clap clap clap…
Now, can we get back to identifying the real issues and solving the real problems , don’t want to get mired in useless and overly used accolades.
oh Touchy touchy I must have struck a chord. To enlighten you a civil servant I am not. I am the one who sits or stands next to you at a restaurant, and at the supermarket, at the gas station and yes at your entrance to your house. You never know I bumped you yesterday in the e.evator. Hahaha.
So you’re a stalker, ok, thanks for that weirdo.
While you’re saluting and since you are so close to the issue could you please do mi a favor and repeat an answer, of do the high schools need libraries or not?
That’s the spirit! Nothing to see here, move along…
As I understand the article of the report, I think that there could’ve been a little political inference to the report, and look at who is Minister of Education and which school was mentioned the most, and what is the end of the report , money money .
I think that the Government is being the bigger problems in education system when the government took away the authority from the Teachers and parents to not be able to adequately discipline the kids when necessary . When you have a disruptive kids in the classroom and around , you have a disruptive atmosphere . Not a good learning environment for kids .
CNS: I find it interesting the negative slant you have taken against JGHS (in the previous article) which recieved a “satisfactory” rating while Grace And LSHS have recieved the same rating and this article is more balanced.
The 1st sentence of the previous article simply is not true for JGHS which was not rated failing.
“Both of the government run high schools on Grand Cayman were given failing grades by the Office of Education Standards following recent inspections”
Please provide balance and equity for all.
I am not understanding why, in the smaller primary schools, they now have 2 non teaching senior management. At the school my children attend, I dare say 1 is enough. The former teacher is now sequestered to an office which she rarely occupies. Now that’s a waste of resources.
Feather nesting, You will see it at all level of education on the island. Rather obvious, but common for 3rd world education standards.
Top 10 popular opinions/suggestions of the students:
10) More candy
9) Class times should be an extension of recess time
8) The dog ate my homework is an allowed valid argument 3 times per semester
7) On campus hair saloon
6) Free iphones for all
5) Courtyard speaker is playing Bob Marley 24/7
4) Nobody is to talk about fight-club including teachers and principles
3) Credit for writing your name on a test
2) Credit for writing you name on the homework you did for a friend
1) Cant emphasize this enough, more candy
The students are well traveled around the world and have kept up on current trends in teaching. Just like lake Wobegon, they are all above average.
Expect some useful high-quality tattle-telling in those opinions, possibly steered by their mother or father.
CIG can build Boardwalks but not a GRADE A school system. This really highlights the stupidity in our country. Cayman could have one of the best rated school systems in the world but CHOOSE to sweep it to one side. And you wonder why unemployment and job hopping is an issue? Cayman grows ignorance in mass amounts.
this is joke they just handed out 400 permits how do they except to control it
also cutting the heads off is the stupidest thing they could have offered.
WASTE OF TIME AND MONEYYYYYYYYYYY
Illiterate drivel.
They choose to only hire people as stupid as themselves to keep the gravy train moving.
Thats what serves as a “good fit” these days.
What better information than to use a student who cant read or write to determine success or failure. Maybe we can be popular with the students while they still fail.
What a supremely ignorant statement. What percentage of students graduating from the public system cannot read or write. I am willing to bet its less than 1% and due to severe learning disabilities and poor parental involvement. The same students that you say cant read or write are performing at level with their private sector counterparts in all major academic events and external exams. So yes, they can certainly read, understand and respond to a survey that is based on their perceptions of the system they are a part of. Kind of like you could respond to a survey if asked, despite your profound ignorance.
Name calling only shows who is the real fool.
Guessing is a form of ignorance when you are too stupid to realize what is going on under your nose.
Only 50% pass A*-C? These are very basic exams. D or under is essentially illiterate and innumerate. This is a rich country with the exam results of impoverished inner cities. Stop making excuses.
Im sorry are you claiming the public and private school external exam results are the same? Really?
Cayman prep web site claims 98% get 7 or more C or better. The Compass claims fewer than half of public school kids even get a C in maths and half get a C in English. And you’re claiming the two are comparable? Sticking your head in the sand and calling others ignorant doesn’t strike me as particularly credible.
10.09am If Caymanians can get the same exam results for their children at public schools without paying fees why are those who can afford it flocking to enroll their kids in private schools?.
They enroll them because of the hard-core behavioural issues, which haven’t been dealt with, and become compounded with age…
The (tiny tiny percentage) top tier in government school are on par with the private schools (look at Derricka Neysmith for example). Those kids would be successful anywhere. The government schools continually fail our most vulnerable.
As to the discrepancy in schools ratings….Grace Christian Academy students have parents paying for an education….perhaps they are more discerning as to what makes a quality educational system, which is something many of the parents of students in the government system fail to comprehend, so how would the students be expected to understand that their level of education is substandard. They learn that when they leave school, and enter the job force…ask them.
AMEN